The memories return to chief pilot Steve Wilson as fragments, like reflections in broken glass.
They are tiny and vivid, collected from his hundreds of rescues with Teton County Search and Rescue (SAR), a tight-knit volunteer organization based in northwestern Wyoming.
“Certain details stick out,” he said. “The scenes, the saves, the losses, intense moments and times of relief when the task has been accomplished. But to choose a single rescue is tough. They all come with their unique challenges.”
Wilson gets this question a lot. In conversations and interviews, people ask him which rescue stories stand out in his mind. But if you want the full picture, you had to be there. His friendly, unassuming pilot’s temperament has none of the ribald flair of a practiced raconteur.
Still, he is more than happy to talk about the nature of the work.
“My passion is search-and-rescue,” said Wilson, one of three pilots at the Teton County Sheriff’s Office who partner with the volunteer rescuers at Teton County SAR.
“I enjoyed firefighting and heli-skiing and utility-type work [earlier in my career], but my favorite thing is to help folks when they’re having a rough day,” he said.
“The fact that you can be on the other end of it and be able to help them get back to their families and loved ones in those tough times, it’s definitely part of [the motivation]. And then, it’s serving your community — to be able to give back, in a way. It’s super rewarding.”
Covering vast ground
Teton County SAR covers a search area roughly the size of Rhode Island, with one dedicated Airbus H125 helicopter. In total, it’s about 4,200 square miles (10,800 square kilometers) of widely varied terrain, including arid desert and snow-covered mountains.
The area includes all of Grand Teton National Park and a small section of the storied Yellowstone National Park, plus a tiny collection of private lands.
“It’s a very versatile tool,” said Wilson, referring to the H125. “It does well at high altitude, does well in a lot of the conditions we operate in. It has everything that we need to perform the types of jobs that we do. The versatility of it is what I like the most.”
Wilson is one of two SAR pilots employed by the sheriff’s office, with a third pilot providing vacation relief a few weeks each year.
Teton County owns and operates the H125, which was purchased and customized without any taxpayer money.
Teton County Search and Rescue Foundation spearheaded those fundraising efforts, with completion work carried out by EuroTec Vertical Flight Solutions in Lawrence, Kansas.
The foundation subsequently donated the aircraft to the sheriff’s office, which houses it at SAR headquarters in the resort town of Jackson.
“It’s small and compact,” Wilson said. “You get it into places where you wouldn’t get a larger helicopter.”
Apart from pilots and a full-time SAR coordinator, the rest of the organization is staffed by about 40 unpaid volunteers on call 24 hours a day, year-round.
“Of the 40, we average 15 to 18 people per call who show up [for any given emergency call],” said Michael Estes, SAR coordinator and a founding member of Teton County SAR. “There’s still enough people here that we can successfully complete a mission.”
The volunteers include three emergency room doctors, two nurses, three paramedics, six emergency medical technicians (EMTs), as well as other specialists in the kinds of outdoor activities that locals embrace — and the ones that draw thousands of tourists to the region each year.
They are climbers, skiers, snowboarders, river-runners, equestrian specialists, and more, deploying their skills in
often-harrowing circumstances. Thanks to their efforts, countless avalanche victims, injured mountain bikers, and other adventurers have been saved.
“I think truly, it is care for a fellow human being,” said Estes, explaining the volunteers’ motivation. “And being there for someone on their worst day … the more missions we have, the more [volunteers] keep showing up.”
Geography
To an outsider, Teton County’s geography can seem like a confusing, but visually-stunning, network of disparate terrain.
Its lowest point, in the Teton River Valley, is about 6,000 feet (1,830 meters) below the highest peak of the towering Grand Teton Mountains.
Year-round, wind currents rip through the mountains in unpredictable patterns, gusting over ridges and jostling the helicopter as it flies. Tree canopies frequently cover intended rescue sites, making them hard to access with a longline.
In winter, the occasional low visibility, flat light and deep snow make it difficult to land.
Summer is much busier for rescue work, thanks to an influx of adventure-seeking tourists. In those months, high-and-hot conditions are among the key challenges for Teton County pilots, who fly more than 100 missions a year — though the H125 has proven capable.
“It’s a very dynamic place that we fly,” Wilson said.
He’s quick to acknowledge these challenges are part of the appeal.
“If it were easy, it would probably become more monotonous,” he said. “Certainly, it keeps you on your toes, and that’s a good thing. It keeps you sharp. Maintaining that proficiency and training will help you
continue to grow.”
History
Teton County SAR traces its origins back to 1993, when the local community identified a need for an organized corps of volunteers to augment the sheriff’s office.
Up to this point, the sheriff and his deputies, plus a handful of hunters and other outdoorsmen, handled SAR activity in the region. A growing number of emergencies, plus the region’s sprawling geography, required an expanded and more coordinated approach.
The sheriff hired a coordinator, Alan Merrell, to establish the team of volunteers. About 90 people applied, and 30 were selected to form the initial crew.
The team expanded to 40 volunteers around 2005 due to increased call volume, which coincided with the doubling of Teton County’s population. In the early days, Teton County SAR fielded around 30 emergency calls per year. Today, it’s well over 110.
Doug Meyer, who at the time worked as SAR coordinator, along with volunteer Tim Ciocarlan and the late Ray Shriver, were instrumental in getting the organization off the ground
Teton County expanded its aviation operations shortly after Jackson Hole Mountain Resort opened its backcountry gates in 2008, attracting thrill-seeking backcountry skiers and snowboarders who were sometimes stranded out of bounds.
“We recognized that we needed to have more of a formal helicopter program to respond to that,” Estes said.
Initially, the organization leased a series of aircraft for about eight months each year, usually October through May. Its lessors included Atlanta-based Helicopter Express, which provided an Airbus H125, and Hillsboro Aviation in Oregon, which provided a Bell 407.
“For the last 10 years, we’ve had either the 407 or the AStar,” Estes said. “As we started to utilize the helicopter more and more, especially for backcountry skiers and snowboarders who were going out of bounds, we started looking at the need to have that ship here longer.”
In 2023, the organization acquired its own brand-new H125 after the nine-month “Mission Critical” community fundraising campaign.
“The community was a big part of getting our helicopter, just because we all have a passion for the outdoors and recreating here,” Wilson said. “We all realized [that], and we’re here to serve this community.”
Completion work
After purchasing the H125 from Airbus, Teton County SAR turned to EuroTec Vertical Flight Solutions to manage its completion.
The work began in April 2023 and involved every member of the EuroTec team at various points, including a manager and lead technician who oversaw it from start to finish.
“It’s truly a team effort on all fronts,” said Chad Decker, owner and president of EuroTec. “Every individual plays a vital role to ensure the project is completed on time and within budget.”
“We are truly honored to have been entrusted with the Teton County SAR completion, just as we are with every project that comes through our hangar,” he added. “Each client’s mission is unique, and we work diligently with them to deliver a custom-tailored solution.”
In this case, the bespoke completion included an Astronics Max-Viz 2300 Enhanced Vision System, a BLR FastFin kit, a DART basket, cargo hooks from Boost and Onboard Systems, Bear Paws, a Vertical Flight Solutions True Blue Power TB20 battery kit, a full Garmin avionics suite, dual TDFM radio, Spidertracks location system, and a Swiss Rotor Services door and Maximum Pilot View Kit.
“This multi-mission helicopter project truly showcased our extensive in-house capabilities and talent as a completion center,” Decker said.
“Design and engineering worked with our certification and avionics team to address multiple design changes needed in order for Teton to carry out search-and-rescue and fire suppression work.
“The interior and final finish included the installation of safety equipment, and a complex multi-color paint scheme designed by Teton SAR and the Jackson Hole community. Overall, by applying our decades of knowledge and experience, we can ensure that every aircraft, regardless of size or work scope, is equipped to meet its specific mission requirements.”
Safety focus
On Valentine’s Day in 2012, Ray Schriver, the organization’s training adviser at the time, sent an email to the other members of Teton County SAR.
The email included a photo of a cyclist circling a velodrome who, according to Estes’ recollection, had one leg and one arm.
Schriver’s message, Estes said, was simple: “No whining.”
“He really pushed us and made us better,” Estes said. “I think we have continued to keep that in mind.”
The next day, Schriver perished in a helicopter crash. The tragic lesson here was not merely to dig deeper when circumstances are tough, but also to put safety first.
If conditions are not safe, or if a ground-based response is more appropriate, nobody flies.
“When we go in, we do that risk assessment,” Estes said. “Is this a necessary flight? Do we really need to do this? And anybody can say no. The pilot is going to have the ultimate say, but any person on the team can say, ‘No’ … ‘Stop’ … ‘I’m concerned about this.’
“The day we had the accident, it was a beautiful day. Blue skies, sunny … it was a mistake, and unfortunately, Ray was killed in that. And that really made us look and say, ‘What are we doing?’”
At the time, camaraderie among team members was strong. It still is, with a family-like atmosphere rooted in compassion and mutual respect. Several of the members have decals on their trucks that read: “Ray rides with us,” Estes said.
“That’s who he was,” Estes added. “He challenged us to get better.”
In a line of work that navigates life-and-death situations, the group strives to be open to every rescuer’s mental and emotional struggles.
“We try to promote a community, that we are open for people to talk about how they’re feeling,” Estes said. “It makes for a really strong family. All our groups, when we walk in, there’s no egos. We look at each other and say, ‘Hey. How are you doing?’ … It’s a big part of what we do and how we treat ourselves.
“We need to make sure that we’re good, in ourselves, before we can go help somebody else,” he added. “Because if I’m not feeling good and I put myself in the field, I might be putting my team or somebody else in danger.”
Building for the future
At Teton County SAR, the work is inherently cyclical, hewing closely to the unique demands of winter, summer, and the seasons in between.
But on a typical flying day, Wilson arrives early in the morning to ensure the H125 is ready to go at a moment’s notice.
“I make sure everything is in order, so that when we do get that call, we’re within 10 minutes of being able to push this helicopter out,” he said.
This requires weather checks, performance checks, pre-flight inspections — all carefully regimented. A majority of the group’s helicopter missions use a short-haul technique, with a rescuer lowered on a 150- to 350-ft. (46- to 107-m) longline to extract the patient.
“It’s a very stable platform for those types of operations,” said Wilson, referring again to the H125. “It’s lightweight, high performance and fits the bill.”
The aircraft enables much of the life-saving work at Teton County SAR, and he clearly loves to fly. But it’s the camaraderie and mutual support that helps keep him going.
“When you have the types of shared experiences that you deal with in our operations, it tends to bring folks together,” he said. “And you also need that sense of trust and camaraderie within that group.
“We don’t take ourselves too seriously, but we take our work very seriously,” he added. “Once you’re out the door, it’s strictly professional. You just get out there and get the job done.”